Does an experimentally induced self-association elicit affective self-prioritisation?

Self-relevant stimuli such as one's name and face have been demonstrated to influence information processing in both the cognitive and affective domains. It has been observed that recently self-associated stimuli can also influence cognition, but their impact on affect has not been tested yet. In the current study (N = 107), we test whether recently self-associated stimuli yield an affective bias and compare the size of the effect with that of familiar self-associated stimuli. A Recoding-Free Implicit Association Test (IAT-RF) presenting self-associated, neutral object-associated, positive, and negative stimuli was used with two groups: one which categorised familiar words as self- and neutral object-associated stimuli, and a second which categorised recently self- and neutral object-associated geometric shapes. In both cases, response times were faster for congruent trials, which mapped response keys as "positive/self" and "negative/neutral object," than for incongruent trials which mapped response keys as "positive/neutral object" and "negative/self." The size of the effect yielded by familiar and new self-associated stimuli did not differ. This indicates that experimentally induced self-association can immediately yield an affective bias in favour of the self-associated stimulus.

Engaging the Guatemala Scientific Diaspora: The Power of Networking and Shared Learning.

The underdevelopment of the higher education system in Guatemala and the fragility of its science and technology (S&T) contexts have compelled a significant number of talented Guatemalan scientists to be trained, educated, and employed abroad. The relocation of such skilled human power to different countries and regions has resulted in a growing Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora (GSD). Until recently, the emigration of scientists from the Global South to scientifically advanced countries in the North was studied as it negatively impacted the countries of origin. However, technological upgrades and globalization have progressively shifted the paradigm in which such scientific diasporas interact and connect, thus enabling them to influence their home countries positively. Due to the lack of knowledge-based evidence and functioning connecting platforms, the value and potential of the GSD in their involvement in proposing solutions to complex socio-economic, environmental, and other challenges faced by Guatemalan society remain unknown. Moreover, the lack of interaction of relevant stakeholders (S&T policy agents, international partners, higher education institutions and research centers, industry, and relevant not governmental organizations) represents a pervasive obstacle to the untapped impact of the GSD in the country. This study outlines the Guatemalan scientific diasporas' networking as a mechanism for building research excellence and intellectual capital. This force could respond to the need to strengthen the national science capacities and meet the demands for knowledge production and access to broader sectors of society. This research applied qualitative methodology that, through the conduction of focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with members of the Guatemalan scientific community and relevant key stakeholders, delved into the existence and articulation of the GSD and potential stages for their engagement with their country of origin. Findings highlight the importance of digital and technological pathways that might leverage the GSD's knowledge and experience, channeling skills, and international connections for better interaction with the Guatemalan society. Furthermore, the discussion addresses how technology might turn brain drain into brain circulation, enabling the articulation of the GSD as a viable opportunity to generate collaboration between scientists abroad and local actors, ultimately impacting the building and development of Guatemalan science and national research capacities.

The impact of newly self-associated pictorial and letter-based stimuli in attention holding.

Familiar self-associated stimuli such as one's own name and face are more efficient in guiding attention than other-associated stimuli. Remarkably, a short association of geometric shapes to the self versus others is sufficient to induce prioritization of the self- (vs. other-) associated shape in a matching task. Replications with other tasks measuring different stages of information processing, however, produced mixed results. It thus remains unclear whether the effect can be attributed to the newly associated stimulus alone. Therefore, in Study 1 (N = 28), we implemented the matching task and additionally compared the effectiveness of familiar versus newly self-associated stimuli with that of stranger-related stimuli to hold attention as cues in a dot-probe task. The self and the stranger were either represented by familiar labels ("I" vs. "stranger"), newly associated shapes, or shape-label pairs. In Study 2 (N = 31), participants associated nonwords to themselves and a stranger to compare the attentional impact of familiar and new self-associated letter combinations. Thus, we addressed the potential limitation due to modality present in former studies-which used mostly pictorial stimuli as new representations and letter combinations as familiar representations. Across both studies, in the dot-probe task, responses were faster towards targets following the self-associated stimuli compared with stranger-associated stimuli but only when familiar representations were used. Responses in the matching task were faster when confirming the correct self-associated pair. The results suggest that, under conditions of attentional competition, the prioritization of self-associated compared with other-associated cues does not generalize to newly associated stimuli.

Does Self-Associating a Geometric Shape Immediately Cause Attentional Prioritization?

In many cognitive tasks, stimuli associated with one's self elicit faster responses than stimuli associated with others. This is true for familiar self-representations (e.g., one's own name), for new self-associated stimuli, and for combinations of both. The current research disentangles the potential of self- versus stranger-representations for familiar, new, and paired (familiar + new) stimuli to guide attention. In Study 1 (N = 34), responses to familiar and new self- versus other representations were tested in a dot-probe task with a short stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA; 100 ms). Study 2 (N = 31) and Study 3 (N = 35) use a long SOA (1,000 ms) to test whether the findings are mirrored in inhibition of return (IOR). We observe significant performance differences for targets following self- versus stranger-associated stimuli (i.e., a cuing effect or IOR depending on the SOA length), yet only when familiar representations are present. This indicates that, under conditions of attentional competition between self- and stranger-representations, familiar self-representations impact the distribution of attention while new self-representations alone do not.